Thales enables delivery of mobile authentication projects

Thales has launched a packaged pilot version of its market-leading identity management and authentication solution, SafeSign, for mobile authentication.

The pilot package is aimed at enterprises, banks and corporates, which need to implement strong authentication systems quickly and cost-effectively, allowing customers and employees to securely access services, such as online banking or work stations, using a mobile phone as the security token, removing the need to carry a dedicated hardware token.

As the worldwide mobile subscriber base is expected to increase from 3bn at year-end 2007 to approximately 4.9bn by year-end 2012, the mobile phone is increasingly becoming a ubiquitous and cost-effective platform for authentication.

Thales' mobile authentication pilot allows companies to quickly implement stronger security solutions in response to industry regulation or security breaches. By using the SafeSign pilot package, a strong authentication environment can be set up in under 20 minutes, revolutionising the pilot phase of a project, saving valuable time and enabling companies to react more quickly to changing security requirements.

Paul Meadowcroft, head of transaction security for the e-Security activities of Thales, comments, “Our solution supports a range of security tokens, but the mobile phone is gaining traction as an authentication device as many of us carry our phones with us all the time.”

“By offering this service in a pilot package, we are enabling our customers to save the time, money and resource that is often ploughed into traditional pilot projects. Such considerations are crucial at a time when many of our customers are under pressure to respond quickly to a constantly evolving security environment. The ability to easily run a proof-of-concept programme before committing to full-scale deployment also provides customers with the confidence that they are investing in a solution which will meet their business and security needs.”